LO
ConstraintCognitive automation2024-09-17
California enacted AB 2602: a contract clause letting a digital replica of a performer's voice replace their work is unenforceable without specific uses or representation
Voice actoroccupation page →
Event date / reported
2024-09-17
Evidence stage
ConstraintFailure, rollback, regulation or cost is suppressing adoption. Can lower an assessment or widen its uncertainty.
Tasks this bears on
Deciding who may copy your voice
Reading and negotiating the clauses that let a producer create and use a digital replica of your voice — for what, for how long and for how much.
New task✓ Evidence-backed
Where this applies
The chaptered bill text on California Legislative Information, read in full, and its history (approved by the Governor and chaptered on 17 September 2024, Chapter 259, Statutes of 2024). It adds section 927 to the Labor Code: a provision in an agreement for personal or professional services is unenforceable, only as it relates to a new performance fixed on or after 1 January 2025 by a digital replica of the individual, if it allows a digital replica of the individual's voice or likeness to be created and used in place of work the individual would otherwise have performed in person, it lacks a reasonably specific description of the intended uses (unless the uses are consistent with the contract and the fundamental character of the recording), and the individual was represented neither by legal counsel who negotiated the digital replica rights nor by a union whose collective agreement expressly addresses digital replicas. It is one state's contract rule: it does not ban digital replicas, it does not set payment, and it says nothing about how often replicas are used or how many voice actors there are.
What this means
The law makes the terms for copying a performer's voice part of the job: a clause that swaps the performer for a digital replica has to say what for, or be negotiated by a lawyer or a union, or it cannot be enforced. That is new work for performers — reading and negotiating those terms — rather than protection from the technology.
What it does not yet show
It covers one state and only clauses that replace work the performer would have done in person; it does not stop replicas being made under clearly described terms, and it sets no rate of pay.
What you can check
Open your latest voice contract and look for a clause about digital replicas, synthetic voice or AI: check whether it says what the replica may be used for.
Does it change the assessment?
No. The impact index is never moved by a single event. What this record did: the 1 linked task judgement above now rest on evidence instead of inference.
Source
California Legislative Information — AB-2602 Contracts against public policy: personal or professional services: digital replicas (Chapter 259, Statutes of 2024) · verified 2026-09-26 · Claude (VOLO agent) · interpreted 2026-09-26 · Claude (VOLO agent)
Primary source — published by the party that did this, or the authority of record. No co-signature needed.
This record is cited in